Take a wedge out of your bag and set it on a table, face square, the way you would set it behind a ball. Look at it from the side, level with the table top. The leading edge is not touching. There is a sliver of daylight under it, and the club is resting on a point further back on the sole.
That sliver is bounce. Everything else in this article is an explanation of why it is there.
The one sentence version
Bounce is the angle between the leading edge of the wedge and the lowest point of its sole. A wedge with more bounce holds its leading edge higher off the ground at address. Its job is to stop the club digging.
When the number is printed on the club, it is that angle in degrees. An 8 means the leading edge sits 8 degrees above the point the sole rests on. A 12 sits higher again.
Why digging is the problem
Almost every bad wedge shot inside 120 yards is the same shot. The club reaches the ground before it reaches the ball, the leading edge cuts into the turf or the sand, and the head slows down. The ball goes two yards, or it goes over the green because the face closed on the way through. The golfer blames the swing. Most of the time the swing was fine. The club stopped.
Bounce is the first line of defence against that. A sole that sits with its leading edge up meets the ground with the back of the sole first. Instead of cutting in, it skids. The head keeps its speed, the face stays where you aimed it, and the ball comes out the way you pictured.
That is the whole idea. A wedge with the right bounce lets you hit slightly behind the ball and get away with it. On a full shot with a 7 iron, hitting behind the ball is a fat shot. On a bunker shot with a wedge, hitting behind the ball is the shot.
How to read the number
Bounce runs from about 4 degrees to about 14 on wedges you can buy. The ranges are rough, and different makers cut the lines in different places, but this is close enough to shop with.
Low bounce, 4 to 8. The leading edge sits close to the ground. Good on firm turf, tight lies and hardpan, where a high bounce sole would skip off the surface before it got to the ball. Good for a player who picks the ball clean with a shallow swing. Unforgiving for a steep swing on soft ground, because there is nothing stopping the edge going in.
Mid bounce, 8 to 12. The all purpose range. Works on most turf, most sand, most swings. If you are buying one wedge and do not know your attack angle, this is where you land.
High bounce, 12 and up. The leading edge sits well up. Built for soft sand, wet grass and steep swings that take a deep divot. It can feel like it bounces off very firm ground, which is where the name comes from.
The honest way to pick is to look at your divots. A deep divot means a steep attack angle, and a steep attack angle wants more bounce. A shallow scrape or no divot means you are sweeping it, and you can carry less. Our own lineup follows that logic: the 45 and the 60 carry 8 degrees, the 56 carries 12, because the 56 is the one you are hitting out of sand.
Bounce is not fixed. You change it every time you open the face
This is the part that gets left out.
Open the face of a wedge and the leading edge rises. You have added bounce without changing the club. Lean the shaft forward at address and the leading edge drops. You have taken bounce away. The number on the club is what you get with the face square and the shaft neutral. Every other setup is an adjustment to it.
That is why a low bounce lob wedge can still work from a bunker if you open it wide, and why a high bounce sand wedge digs like a shovel when you lean the handle at the target and try to trap it. The player is changing the effective bounce with the hands, often without knowing.
Two things add effective bounce along with the angle. Sole width: a wider sole spreads the contact and resists digging more than a narrow one at the same angle. And grind: material removed from the heel or trailing edge lets the sole sit lower when the face is opened, so the club can be opened without the leading edge lifting too far off the ground. When a spec sheet says M grind or K grind, that is what it is describing. M is the versatile all round shape. K has more sole and is built for sand and softer conditions.
What bounce cannot do
Bounce keeps the leading edge out of the ground on the way in. It does nothing about what happens once the club is in the sand or the grass.
This is the problem our engineer was working on when he enlarged the back cuts on the PM1 and rounded their inside edges. The sole angle was never the issue. A solid back has nowhere to send the sand and wet grass it collects. It packs up behind the face and the club stalls. Same result as digging, different cause.
That is why the PM1 head has nine cuts running all the way through the back. What bounce does at the front, keeping the edge up, the cuts do at the back, giving the sand somewhere to go. It is not more bounce. It is the other half of the same problem. You can test the difference yourself on any wedge: hit a bunker shot and turn the club over. Whatever is packed on the back of the head is what the club was carrying when it reached the ball.
The contrarian bit
Most golfers own too little bounce, not too much.
The wedges that get sold as "tour" spec tend to sit low, because the players they are named after have shallow, repeatable swings and play on firm, well kept turf. The rest of us play soft public fairways in the morning dew, with a swing that gets steeper under pressure. A low bounce wedge on that turf is a digging tool. If you have ever bought a wedge that felt great on the range mat and terrible on the course, this is probably why. The mat had no give. The course did.
If you take a divot with your wedges and you are choosing between two bounce numbers, take the higher one. It is easier to lean a high bounce wedge forward and use less of it than to open a low bounce wedge and invent more.
One thing to do next round
After your next bunker shot, do not rake yet. Pick the club up and look at two things. Where the sole hit the sand, and what is stuck to the back of the head. The first tells you whether your bounce is right. The second tells you whether your sole is.
If you want the short version of which lofts and bounces to carry, it is in the Fitting Guide. If you want to see the wedge we built around the second problem, it is the PM1 Noir.
Three more worth reading from here: 56 or 60 on picking between the two, head weight on the number almost nobody publishes, and when your wedges are actually worn out.
Questions golfers ask about bounce
What is bounce on a wedge?
The angle between the leading edge and the lowest point of the sole. It holds the leading edge off the ground so the club skids through turf and sand instead of digging.
Is more bounce better?
More bounce suits soft ground, sand and steep swings. Less suits firm turf and shallow swings. Most amateurs carry less than they should.
What bounce should a sand wedge have?
Usually 10 to 14 degrees. Ours is 12, because the 56 is the club you are hitting out of sand. 56 or 60 goes through why our higher lofted wedge carries less.
Does opening the face add bounce?
Yes. Opening the face raises the leading edge, which adds effective bounce. Leaning the shaft forward takes it away.
What do M grind and K grind mean?
Grind is material removed from the sole. M is the versatile all round shape. K has more sole width and is built for sand and softer conditions.